Full Text Archive

Full Text Archive
https://www.fulltextarchive.com
"I wish you wouldn't talk about that, father," she began, having softened under his explanation.
"I don't want to go to Europe now. I don't want to leave Philadelphia. I know you want me to go;
but I don't want to think of going now. I can't."
Butler's brow darkened again. What was the use of all this opposition on her part? Did she really
imagine that she was going to master him--her father, and in connection with such an issue as
this? How impossible! But tempering his voice as much as possible, he went on, quite softly, in
fact. "But it would be so fine for ye, Aileen. Ye surely can't expect to stay here after--" He
paused, for he was going to say "what has happened." He knew she was very sensitive on that
point. His own conduct in hunting her down had been such a breach of fatherly courtesy that he
knew she felt resentful, and in a way properly so. Still, what could be greater than her own
crime? "After," he concluded, "ye have made such a mistake ye surely wouldn't want to stay
here. Ye won't be wantin' to keep up that--committin' a mortal sin. It's against the laws of God
and man."
He did so hope the thought of sin would come to Aileen--the enormity of her crime from a
spiritual point of view--but Aileen did not see it at all. 
"You don't understand me, father," she exclaimed, hopelessly toward the end. "You can't. I have
one idea, and you have another. But I don't seem to be able to make you understand now. The
fact is, if you want to know it, I don't believe in the Catholic Church any more, so there."
The moment Aileen had said this she wished she had not. It was a slip of the tongue. Butler's
face took on an inexpressibly sad, despairing look. 
"Ye don't believe in the Church?" he asked.
"No, not exactly--not like you do."
He shook his head. 
"The harm that has come to yer soul!" he replied. "It's plain to me, daughter, that somethin'
terrible has happened to ye. This man has ruined ye, body and soul. Somethin' must be done. I
don't want to be hard on ye, but ye must leave Philadelphy. Ye can't stay here. I can't permit ye.
Ye can go to Europe, or ye can go to yer aunt's in New Orleans; but ye must go somewhere. I
can't have ye stayin' here--it's too dangerous. It's sure to be comin' out. The papers'll be havin' it
next. Ye're young yet. Yer life is before you. I tremble for yer soul; but so long as ye're young
and alive ye may come to yer senses. It's me duty to be hard. It's my obligation to you and the
Church. Ye must quit this life. Ye must lave this man. Ye must never see him any more. I can't
permit ye. He's no good. He has no intintion of marrying ye, and it would be a crime against God
and man if he did. No, no! Never that! The man's a bankrupt, a scoundrel, a thafe. If ye had him,
ye'd soon be the unhappiest woman in the world. He wouldn't be faithful to ye. No, he couldn't.
He's not that kind." He paused, sick to the depths of his soul. "Ye must go away. I say it once
and for all. I mane it kindly, but I want it. I have yer best interests at heart. I love ye; but ye must.
I'm sorry to see ye go--I'd rather have ye here. No one will be sorrier; but ye must. Ye must
make it all seem natcheral and ordinary to yer mother; but ye must go--d'ye hear? Ye must."
He paused, looking sadly but firmly at Aileen under his shaggy eyebrows. She knew he meant
this. It was his most solemn, his most religious expression. But she did not answer. She could
191 / 312

---